1.5 - release notes

New Features

Feedback to students

Mooshak is increasingly used as an e-Learning tool and many
teachers noticed that some students are discouraged when they
receive repeatedly the same negative response (e.g. Wrong
Answer). Mooshak could already be configured to show error
messages but these are very terse (sometimes empty) and tend also
to be repetitive. These messages are presented pop-up windows
linked to the submission status.

From this version you can configure Mooshak to present a report
to a student on his or hers submission. As before, this report is
available from a link on the submission status that is shown only
to the student/team. This link displays the report on the lower
frame of the student/team interface.

Feedback is activated on the submissions
folder. Set the Give feedback to report and
configure the Show errors property with the types of
errors you want to activate reports. You can also set
a Feedback delay with the number of minutes between
reports with added information. This last feature should
discourage students from making spurious submissions just to
probe the feedback system.

Feedback reports are incremental, in the sense that they
disclose information progressively and avoid repeating a report
already shown to the student, while keeping all the previous
information in the same report. The information they provide is
the following, (in this order.

Observation of the worst classification

An observation is the error message given by
compiler/system or the output of a special corrector associated
with the problem.

Count of tests cases with worst classification

Sometimes the status is still wrong answer but the number
of failed test cases reduced (or increased). This message is
omitted if there is just one test case.

Observations of all test cases

If a program produces different observations (error
messages, corrector's output) them one of them may suggest the
source of error. This message will be omitted if it simply
repeat the observation of the first classification.

Count of test cases per classification

If there are test cases with different classifications then
the number of failed tests may change but not on the worst
classification.

Test case feedback hint

You can add an hint to a test case folder using the new
field named Feedback.
That hint (if non empty) is shown only on reports that failed that
particular test. Hints from several test cases are reported
incrementally. This feature is useful if the test is checking
a particular type of input (e.g. "Be careful of negative numbers").

Test case input and result

You can set a test case as being available for feedback in
the test folder) , in which case the input
data with be shown to the student with respective status
(e.g. Time Limit Exceeded). To set a test case as available for
feedback you must check a new box named Show in the test
folder.

Test case input and output

As in the previous case
but the expected output is also shown in the report

The system tries to keep a balance between providing too little
information that could discourage the student, and too much
information that would prevent the student from trying to overcome
the problem with the information (s)he already has.

Auditing sessions
A new command on the contests' folder (Audit | Sessions
...) lists both active and concluded authenticated sessions
(i.e. excluding guest sessions). This listing can be filtered by
date, profile and state, as well as sorted by any of its fields.

Fixed bugs

Security issues related with the help system

Reevaluation of submissions with extra files (Java classes and
object files in FPC)